Broadband Multi-wavelength Properties of M87 during the 2017 Event Horizon Telescope Campaign
The EHT MWL Science Working Group, J. C. Algaba, J. Anczarski, K. Asada, M. Baloković, S. Chandra, Y.-Z. Cui, A. D. Falcone, M. Giroletti, C. Goddi, K. Hada, D. Haggard, S. Jorstad, A. Kaur, T. Kawashima, G. Keating, J.-Y. Kim, M. Kino, S. Komossa, E. V. Kravchenko, T. P. Krichbaum, S.-S. Lee, R.-S. 如森 Lu 路, M. Lucchini, S. Markoff, J. Neilsen, M. A. Nowak, J. Park, G. Principe, V. Ramakrishnan, M. T. Reynolds, M. Sasada, S. S. Savchenko, K. E. Williamson, Kazunori Akiyama, Antxon Alberdi, Walter Alef, Richard Anantua, Rebecca Azulay, Anne-Kathrin Baczko, David Ball, John Barrett, Dan Bintley, Bradford A. Benson, Lindy Blackburn, Raymond Blundell, Wilfred Boland, Katherine L. Bouman, Geoffrey C. Bower, Hope Boyce, Michael Bremer, Christiaan D. Brinkerink, Roger Brissenden, Silke Britzen, Avery E. Broderick, Dominique Broguiere, Thomas Bronzwaer, Do-Young Byun, John E. Carlstrom, Andrew Chael, Chi-kwan Chan, Shami Chatterjee, Koushik Chatterjee, Ming-Tang Chen, Yongjun 永军 Chen 陈, Paul M. Chesler, Ilje Cho, Pierre Christian, John E. Conway, James M. Cordes, Thomas M. Crawford, Geoffrey B. Crew, Alejandro Cruz-Osorio, Jordy Davelaar, Mariafelicia De Laurentis, Roger Deane, Jessica Dempsey, Gregory Desvignes, Jason Dexter, Sheperd S. Doeleman, Ralph P. Eatough, Heino Falcke, Joseph Farah, Vincent L. Fish, Ed Fomalont, H. Alyson Ford, Raquel Fraga-Encinas, Per Friberg, Christian M. Fromm, Antonio Fuentes, Peter Galison, Charles F. Gammie, Roberto García, Olivier Gentaz, Boris Georgiev, Roman Gold, José L. Gómez, Arturo I. Gómez-Ruiz, Minfeng 敏峰 Gu 顾, Mark Gurwell
Abstract
Abstract In 2017, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration succeeded in capturing the first direct image of the center of the M87 galaxy. The asymmetric ring morphology and size are consistent with theoretical expectations for a weakly accreting supermassive black hole of mass ∼6.5 × 10 9 M ⊙ . The EHTC also partnered with several international facilities in space and on the ground, to arrange an extensive, quasi-simultaneous multi-wavelength campaign. This Letter presents the results and analysis of this campaign, as well as the multi-wavelength data as a legacy data repository. We captured M87 in a historically low state, and the core flux dominates over HST-1 at high energies, making it possible to combine core flux constraints with the more spatially precise very long baseline interferometry data. We present the most complete simultaneous multi-wavelength spectrum of the active nucleus to date, and discuss the complexity and caveats of combining data from different spatial scales into one broadband spectrum. We apply two heuristic, isotropic leptonic single-zone models to provide insight into the basic source properties, but conclude that a structured jet is necessary to explain M87’s spectrum. We can exclude that the simultaneous γ -ray emission is produced via inverse Compton emission in the same region producing the EHT mm-band emission, and further conclude that the γ -rays can only be produced in the inner jets (inward of HST-1) if there are strongly particle-dominated regions. Direct synchrotron emission from accelerated protons and secondaries cannot yet be excluded.